Boredstuck
by MixandMatchJellyRoll
Summary: Takes place post-game. All of the trolls and humans have been resurrected and are on their way to their new universe. The journey will last about a month but only a week in, people start getting bored. What starts as a meaningless act out of boredom quickly escalates into a full-fledged war as old wounds are reopened and new ones are created.
1. Chapter 1 (1:06:00)

**Author's Note: **

**First of all, this is going to be kind of long so skip to the end of the bold if you want. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings. ;)**

**This is my first fan fiction so I have a bit of trouble keeping everyone in character. Also the chapters are really short because I wrote it for my own enjoyment and have too short an attention span to write long chapters. However, because of this I am going to be updating quite frequently because it is easy to write chapters quickly. So if you value quantity over quality, congratulations! You came to the right place.**

**As for the content, you might be wondering where exactly the characters are. I like to think that they are in a sort of waiting room between the end of the game and the arrival in the new universe. I think of it as sort of a cushion the game provides to give the players a chance to relax and sort out their own problems. If you want a visual, picture a really large house with no windows or doors to the outside. Each player has their own room and everything they need to survive. I could have explained all of this in the story, but as I stated before, I am lazy. **

* * *

><p>Your name is JOHN EGBERT and you are incredibly BORED. You are currently sitting on the floor next to your good friend KARKAT VANTAS who is immersed in a RATHER LARGE BOOK that could arguably weigh more than him. As a result of afore mentioned boredom, you peer over your friend's shoulder. The book seems to be a manual on coding, more specifically on viruses. Karkat is concentrating very hard, but seeing as he is still on the same page he was on ten minutes ago, he isn't getting very far.<p>

You sigh rather dramatically and glance at your friend. He either did not notice or is ignoring you. You sigh again, even more loudly this time, but once again he does not acknowledge you. You take a deep breath and let out a deepest sigh of all and that seems to get his attention.

"What in the festering bulgelicking fuck do you want John?"

You shrug and he growls at you before returning to his ridiculously oversized book. Sometimes you swear he could be a dog, or maybe a cat. You always liked cats and dogs but they made your dad sneeze, so you could never get one. You wonder…

You reach out to touch him, ready to be yelled at, but he is so involved in his reading that he doesn't notice. It isn't until you rest your hand on his hair that he looks up.

"John, what are you…"

His words fall short as you begin to scratch his head. His body goes completely slack. You've never seen him so relaxed. He's always so uptight and angry. You hear a noise coming from the back of his throat. For a second you think he is growling at you again but you soon realize that he is in fact purring. You find this fact overwhelmingly adorable. You use one hand to guide his limp body towards you until his head is resting in your lap. The comically large book that had been residing in his lap falls to the floor. His purring gets louder as you get closer to his…

The back of your hand accidentally brushes his right horn and he suddenly jerks up and hops to his feet, bashing your nose with his thick skull.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing you ignorant asshole?"

His face is bright red as the blood rushes underneath his grey skin. You stagger to your feet, holding your hand over your nose as heat rushes to the spot where it unfortunately collided with Karkat's head.

"What did I do wrong?" you say as tears begin to prick the corners of your eyes.

Karkat's face flushes bright red and he begins ranting. You kind of zone out after a couple of words and just stare blankly as his face grows redder and redder. He seemed to get all worked up when you touched his horn. You wonder what would happen if you just kind of reach out and…

Karkat yelps and stops mid-rant as your hand suddenly closes over his horn.

"J-John... let go of my—"

You tighten your grip and he whimpers, falling to his knees. You find this very adorable and amusing.

"L-let go. I fucking mean it!"

You give his horn a tight squeeze and he winces, giving off a strange squeaking noise. It seems to be hurting him so you decide to let him off the hook. He sits on the floor, panting for a few moments before looking up at you. His tiny grey face is bright red with anger.

"John fucking Egbert! I am going to carve out your squishy human insides and feed them to your bleeding corpse's radioactive dog sister!"

He then proceeds to stagger to his feet, punch you in the face and storm out of the room. You cup your hand around your already battered nose as you watch the door slam behind him. You feel a drop of blood fall on to your hand from where he punched you.

Your friend Karkat is such a funny little guy.

Be Karkat


	2. Chapter 2 (1:05:43)

You are now KARKAT VANTAS and you are incredibly ANGRY. Your tiny grey body is filled to the brim with RAGE JUICE. You are consumed by so much HATE and LOATHING that you are almost unable to function. Of course you do not mean THAT type of loathing, as that would be disgusting and uncalled for. No, the type of hate you are feeling is the totally platonic and acceptable kind.

You are currently standing at the BATHROOM SINK, where you are washing your face. You feel dirty and awkward after that unsightly groping that just took place. Who the fuck does Egbert think he is anyway? How dare he decide he has the right to touch you as he pleases? Not a homosexual your ass.

You wipe your hands off on a towel that isn't soaked in sweat (damn horse freak) while plotting your revenge on the little shit face. You are so preoccupied with your plans of revenge that you are not paying attention when you open the bathroom door. You crash into someone and fall to the ground

"Egbert I swear—"

You look up and find that John was not the one you crashed into.

"Oh, it's just you Kanaya. I swear if it was that insufferable prick I would have actually flipped my shit."

Kanaya stares down at you, blinking for a moment.

"Karkat? Is everything all right between you and John?"

Oh great, now you have to deal with this one's meddling. You can handle this problem yourself. Doesn't she know that?

"Everything is fine! Perfect in fact! Egderp and I are so hunky-fucking-dory you don't even know. We are just the best fucking bros who would totally never do anything so shit flipping misleading and invasive that the other one wants to carve his brains out with a spoon. I do not want to impale his human skull with my sickle and throw his blood stained carapace across the room because I love him so fucking much! I love him so much we should go get fucking human married right now!"

You are panting from not breathing at all during your rant. Kanaya has her eyebrows raised. You curse yourself out in your head.

"Karkat, what did John do?"

"He touched my fucking horns ok?"

You push yourself off of the ground and push past Kanaya. You are about to go to your respite block when you hear faint chuckling behind you. You whip around and flip her off. You can feel your face burning up.

"I am sorry." She says, still laughing slightly, "But is it not amusing? He could not have possibly known what he was doing."

"I don't fucking care. It was sick and wrong. That little asshat is going to pay for this."

Kanaya sighs and shakes her head in an infuriatingly superior way.

"Once you calm down, how about the three of us sit down and have a little talk to sort things out? In the meantime, Jane was showing Rose and I how to make a human sweet she referred to as 'The Cupcakes.' Why don't you go to the kitchen and have one? I have a feeling you would like them."

Kanaya turns and enters the bathroom before you can respond. You scowl and cross your arms. You do not need Kanaya to go all auspitice on you and Egbert. Even so, you are kind of curious about the human desserts…

Go to the kitchen.


	3. Chapter 3 (1:05:31)

You walk into the kitchen to find Rose cleaning up. On the counter rests a plate of what you can only assume are "the cupcakes." Rose looks up from the bowl she is washing and spots you.

"Ah Karkat, I've been expecting you. Would you like to try a cupcake?" She asks.

You roll your eyes at her stupid seer bullshit but nod anyways. The cupcakes smell too good to turn one down. Rose hands you one and you sniff it experimentally, sitting down at the counter. There is a strange paper lining on the outside of the pastry.

"Peel off the paper before you eat it." Rose says, returning to her cleaning, but still watching you out of the corner of her eye.

"I knew that! I'm not a grub suckling wriggler."

You carefully peel off the paper and sink your teeth into the fluffy human treat. It is very sweet and feels like a cloud in your mouth. You are particularly fond of the creamy stuff on top. You lick a bit of the cream off of the top and let it's sugary sweetness melt over your tongue.

You then notice that Rose is staring at you and smiling in an unnerving way.

"What?"

"I'm assuming you enjoy it?" She asks.

You nod again; too busy taking another bite of the cupcake to say anything. She giggles and you scowl.

"What's so funny?" You ask.

"It's nothing, it's just kind of adorable that you have a sweet tooth." Rose ruffles your hair and you scowl as she goes to put the bowl away.

"You mean not everyone likes this stuff?"

You cannot believe that there is a sane creature in any universe that would not love to stuff one of these tasty things in their mouth.

"Of course not; John, for one, hates them."

Does he now? You pop the last bite of cupcake into your mouth as a plan begins to formulate in your thinkpan.

Rose looks at you again and laughs.

"You have frosting on your nose." She says.

You cross your eyes and see a bit of a white smudge on the tip of your nose. Before you can wipe it off, Rose licks her thumb and cleans it off for you. You roll your eyes. She has been spending way too much time around the other Lalonde. The two of them have been embracing their relationship as mutual human moms and have begun to act the same way around everyone else. At first it was weird and a little creepy, but everyone has gotten used to it by now.

When Rose turns away again to wash her hands, you sneak another cupcake off of the platter and hide it behind your back. You are pretty sure Rose would let you have it if you asked, but that would risk her asking why and you doubt she would approve of what you have planned for it, even if you are giving it to a friend…

You stand up from the stool and back up. You turn around quickly, stealthily shifting the cupcake in front of you. You are almost at the door when Rose's voice stops you.

"Karkat?"

"Yea?" You say without turning around.

"Go easy on him ok?"

Damn maggot-licking, fuckbagging seer bullshit.

"No promises."

Be John.

* * *

><p><strong>Headcannon alert! This chapter contains a headcannon that I am particularly fond of. I like to think that Roxy and Rose have become kind of like everyone's mom. It's just a fluffy cute thing I thought would fit with their characters. A lot of headcannons I have just came up while I've been writing this, so I'm going to make notes of them like this in future chapters as well. This is mostly for me just so that I can keep track of things. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my <strong>**headcannons, and what yours are. I'd love to hear them! :)**


	4. Chapter 4 (1:05:14)

You are back to being bored again. You derped around your room for a good twenty minutes trying to find something entertaining to do, but come up with nothing. You are currently lying on your bed with your upper body dangling off the end and trying to lick your nose. This is what your boredom has resolved you to. You are thinking that it might be time to get up off of your ass and find out what everyone else is doing when you hear a knock on your door.

You attempt to sit up but end up losing your balance and falling off of the bed with a crash. You rub your head for a couple of seconds before remembering what you were doing and hopping nimbly to your feet.

You open the door and have only a millisecond to register the short troll that is standing in front of you before 108 pounds of Karkat hit you in the gut, effectively knocking you off of your feet.

You lie on the floor with Karkat's tiny frame hovering above you, blinking in confusion. He tries to pin your arms to the ground with one hand as he is holding something in the other hand. You push him off of you easily and force him to the ground, switching your positions.

"What the hell are you doing?" You ask, still completely confused.

He grins, showing off his sharp little troll teeth. You don't think you've ever seen him smile, much less like that. Honestly it's kind of freaking you out.

"I'm giving you a present, asslicker."

Your friend's bony knee comes up and jabs you in the gut, knocking the breath out of your lungs. In your moment of confusion, Karkat slips out from under you and pushes you against the nearest wall. He sits on your splayed legs and holds down one your arms with his own. He steps on your other arm with his foot. You struggle in vain, still completely baffled by the sudden attack,

Karkat holds in his other hand a…

No.

Hell no.

You feel your strength returning when you see that vile… thing. You succeed in pushing the bony troll off of you and begin to abscond. You almost successfully abscond, but just before you can reach the door, you are tackled to the ground. Karkat rolls your body over and before you can protest, shoves the cupcake into your mouth. You gag as the sickening sweetness invades your throat.

"Eat that fuckass!" He leaves the room.

You cough and splutter, trying to get the disgusting thing out of your mouth. There is frosting all over the carpet and your face but you don't care. If you don't get this taste out of your mouth right now, you think you are going to throw up.

You push yourself off of the ground, head-spinning from all of the sugar. You haven't tasted anything that sweet since… since…

Your sugar coated throat constricts as memories flood back to you. You clamp your hand over your mouth, leaning against the wall with the other. You don't care that you are getting frosting all over your fingers.

For a moment, you don't want the taste to leave. You don't want the memories to leave.

Then you remember how much they hurt, and the residue on your tongue turns sickening. It is no longer a question whether or not you are going to throw up; it is a fact.

You run down the hall to the bathroom and throw the door open, slamming it behind you so that no one can hear. You lean over the toilet but nothing comes up. After a couple of minutes of gagging, you sink to your knees and rest your head in your hands. You feel a lump rising in your throat.

No.

You push back all of the memories and stand up. You wash the frosting off of your face and out of your mouth and with it, the pain. You fill the void with the only other emotion that is powerful enough to combat it.

Anger.

You will make him pay for that.

Karkat Vantas had better watch out.

Get Revenge

* * *

><p><strong>Hey, so pretty soon the timeline is going to get pretty confusing, so I've added what day it is to each chapter title (in relationship to when they arrived in the house thing). I'm pretty sure this will suffice for now, but later I might start having to add something else to keep track. It's going to get pretty out of control pretty fast. <strong>

**Challenge! Guess the magic word and win a virtual cookie!**


	5. Chapter 5 (1:04:23)

You stand outside of her door, hesitating for a moment. Maybe this isn't a good idea. Maybe it's taking things too far. Before you can change your mind, the door swings open and she stands before you.

"Hey John." She says, showing off her fangs with a sly grin, "I haven't seen you around much this past week."

"Yea, I've been a bit busy."

Lies.

In truth, you had been kind of avoiding her. You used to think she was super cool and a really awesome friend, but then you realized that she is kind of crazy. And that she scares you. Then again, she probably scares everyone. Which is why you are currently standing in front of her door.

"Well I'd love to hear all about it. Come on in."

She steps to the side, letting you into her room. She closes the door loudly behind you, making you flinch just a little. You hope she didn't notice that. She sits down on the only chair in the room and seeing that there is no other place to sit, you make yourself comfortable on the floor.

"So John, what brings you to my respite block?" She asks, leaning back.

"Actually, I have a favor to ask."

"Oh really? You know, it's not polite to go around asking for things without offering anything in return."

"Of course. Whatever you want. I mean, as long as you don't make me do anything awful or hurt someone or something."

She rolls her eyes.

"You're so boring John, no wonder I broke up with you."

She contemplates for a moment.

"But, I suppose I can think of something that fits your criteria."

She sticks out her hand and you shake it before you can second-guess yourself.

"So John, what do you want?"

"I want to get back at Karkat. He did something that made me… that I… he did something stupid and I want to get revenge."

You can see her eyes light up as a grin spreads across her face. Maybe this wasn't the best idea…

"Let me get this straight. You, boy-Skylark, the Windsock Wonder, Egderp Extraordinaire, want to get revenge on little old Karkles? You can't just tell me that and expect me not to wonder what he could have done to earn your pitiful rage."

"That wasn't part of our deal." You say.

She rolls her eyes again, but you hold your ground. You really would rather not have to explain what happened and why it bothered you so much.

"Fine, but you owe me!"

"So what's the plan? How do I get back at him?"

She ponders for a moment.

"Obviously I'll have to do all the work, because it's not like you'll be able to get anything done on your own."

She slides over to her desk and starts scribbling something in a small notebook.

"But, there is one thing you can do."

She rips the page out and hands it to you. There is a code written on it.

"Find someone who can hack into Vantas's computer and retrieve this file. It's password protected, but it shouldn't be that hard to get to."

"What should they do with it?" You ask.

"Have them send it to me. I'll take it from there."

She stretches her arms above her head and stands up. You follow her lead and get to your feet as well.

"And what do you want as payment?"

She grins.

"I'll let you know later."

Be Future Terezi.


	6. Chapter 6 (0:04:23)

You make your way to the recreation block despite your instinct to stay at least three blocks away from Vriska at all times. Who knows what hell will break loose without you there to lay down the law? You just hope that it is a minor attention-seeking scheme and that no one is going to end up getting hurt.

You sit down off to the side of the room where some trolls and humans have already gathered. You can't smell Vriska, but you expected that, seeing as she is probably going to make a point to make a dramatic entrance.

You smell a waft of grape mixed with cheap soda from across the room and wave at in that general direction. Gamzee spots you and comes over to where you are sitting. Ever since he stopped being insane, the two of you have been getting closer again. In fact, it's safe to say that the two of you are raspberry red by now, even if you haven't made it official yet.

Gamzee sits down behind you and you scoot into his lap. He wraps his arms around you and rests his chin on your shoulder as you wait for everyone else to arrive.

Soon enough, the room is filled with a delicious fusion of colorful flavors. You can even smell the sweet licorice scent of the mayor who Dave must have somehow gotten away from can town long enough to show up. Everyone is laughing and chatting. You can't remember the last time everyone hung out together. You really should be doing this more often, you think. Maybe once Vriska is done with her ploy for attention, you can start up a weekly Rainbow Rumpus Partytown meet up where everyone can hang out.

Finally the door bursts open and your nose is met with a sharp burst of blueberry bubblegum.

"Attention assholes! Everyone find a place to sit your butt down and shut your face because it's time for a little bit of entertainment."

And there's that dramatic entrance you were waiting for. You settle against Gamzee, making yourself comfortable for what is sure to be a long and boring display of Serket self-obsession.

Vriska makes her way to the front of the room. She's holding something behind her back. It's just a couple of vanilla sheets of paper with licorice type on it. Obviously you can't smell what it says from this distance.

"Today, everyone of you pansies will witness a most fascinating spectacle. An insight to the mind of Karkat McCrabby Vantas."

Uh oh. This can't be good.

She pulls the paper out and waves it around for everyone to see.

"This is from the very husktop of our dear friend Karkat."

You can smell Karkat jump to his feet.

"How the writhing crotch blistering fuck did you get your disgusting spidery claws on my private journal?"

Karkat runs up to Vriska and grabs for the printout, but she easily pushes him away with one hand. He lunges for her again. She trips him and he lands flat on his face. He tries to push himself up off of the ground but she holds his head down with her foot.

"Let us begin now shall we?"

Karkat struggles under her foot but cannot push himself up off of the ground. Vriska begins to read, mimicking Karkat's voice.

"'Day three on this insufferable shit prison full of eternally defecating wrigglers' (he starts all of his entries like this by the way) 'Today I experienced on of the most vomit inducing spectacles I have ever witnessed with my own raw seeing balls.

I was going to visit Terezi in her respite block to see if I could borrow some rope. When I got there, I heard voices from inside. The door was partially open so I peeked through the crack to see that asshole Strider sitting next to Terezi on the floor. He was reading out loud to her from some shitty human novel that made me want to barf up my internal organs, kick them under a rug and let random people tread on it and wonder what that squishy thing they just stepped on was.

I think it was about dragons or something, but there was also magic and stuff... you know what? Actually I don't care.

Anyways, after a while he put down the book and turned to Terezi. He said something that I couldn't hear and she nodded. He reached out and took her glasses off of her face. Then she asked him something. He hesitated but nodded also. She took off his shades.

His back was to me so I couldn't see what his lookingstubs looked like. Not that I care, damnit. Ok I would be lying if I said I wasn't the slightest bit curious but that's not the shit licking point.

Terezi leaned foreword and licked his face, which was weird but it's Terezi so what did you expect? Then Dave leaned foreword and did something weirder.

He kissed her.

He fucking kissed her.'"

Be future Dave.

* * *

><p><strong>Drama is happening! I mean, there was already drama before this but now the shit has hit the whirling device. <strong>

**We are in this shit now. **

**We are motherfuckin entrenched in this bitch.**

**Anyways...**

**This chapter contains a couple of headcannons that I have a fondness for. **

**1.) Sober Gamzee. Because neither Caliborn or Aranea is controlling Gamzee any more, he is no longer crazy. He probably still suffers some occasional withdrawal symptoms from quitting soper though. **

**2.) Terezi 3 Gamzee. This ship is an interesting one that I'm not quite sure how I came up with. I think Terezi and Gamzee would still have a powerful romantic connection after all of the time they spent being kismesisses, but the **caliginous spark would have died. Once they were able to forgive each other, they began to pity one another and slowly redrom began to form. ****

****3.) Blind Terezi. Somehow during the game, Terezi went blind again. Don't know when, don't know how that's not my job. I chose to make her blind for the sole reason that blind Terezi is so much fun to write. ****

****That's all I can think of for now, if anyone has any questions about things I wrote and why I wrote them, I will answer them in the next chapter. Thanks for reading!****


	7. Chapter 7 (0:03:23)

You are now Dave one hour after Vriska grinned at a silent gathering, 59 minutes after Karkat pushed her off of him, 58 minutes after he grabbed the paper and ripped it up in to tiny little pieces, 57 minutes after Gamzee pushed Terezi off of his lap, 56 minutes after she ran out of the room crying, 55 minutes after Gamzee stormed out of the room, 54 minutes after Karkat yelled at Vriska and ran after Gamzee, 53 minutes after you decided you had enough of this bullshit and left the room yourself, 52 minutes after Rose met you at the door and decided you needed to have a little chat, and 38 minutes after that monstrosity ended.

You are Dave, now, after all of that.

And you are standing outside of Terezi's door.

You run your hand through your hair, bracing yourself for what is sure to be an agonizingly long and painful feelings jam. You knock on the door and press your ear to it.

"What do you want?" She yells, her voice muffled by the door.

"Rez, can I come in?"

"Go away!"

"Please? I want to talk."

"No! Leave me alone!"

You sigh and turn the doorknob anyways, letting yourself in and closing the door behind you Terezi is sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, her back to you. She hops to her feet when she smells you and before you can do anything, she has you pinned against the back of the door, her claw-like nails digging into your throat.

You spot her glasses on the floor. Her blank red eyes are squinted in anger as she snarls.

"I said leave me alone!"

You look at her calmly, not saying anything. Then you reach up and remove your own shades. You watch as she smells the red in your eyes, not only from your irises. Her hand loosens on your throat as her own solid red eyes fill with tears.

She sinks down to the floor and rests her head in her hands. You sit down beside her and hold out your arms. She hesitates for a moment before leaning into your chest, sobbing. You sit there for who knows how long (you actually do: 13 minutes and 26 seconds) before she stops shaking so violently. You gently pet her hair.

"I'm sorry Rez. I told you then and I'm telling you now. If it were up to me, I would wish I'd never even met you. Wait. Fuck. That came out wrong. I mean I wish I'd met you but that I didn't like you. Well, not like, not like you, I don't want to hate you or… shit. What I'm trying to say is—"

"Dave shut up"

"What?"

"Shut up, you're starting to sound like Kanaya. I get what you're trying to say."

"Oh."

You sit there awkwardly for a couple more minutes (4 to be exact) with Terezi's face still buried in your shirt. You figure this has less to do with the fact that she doesn't want to look at you and more so with the fact that she is probably getting high off of your red god tier pajamas.

"So… are we cool now?" You ask. She looks up at you, smiling, and thumps you on the forehead.

"Yea cool kid, we were always cool."

You sigh in relief and slip your shades back over your eyes. There's no use risking anyone else walking in and seeing something they never should have. Terezi pouts.

"Why did you cover up your eyes? I was enjoying them."

"You've been getting off on my eyes this whole time haven't you?"

"Maybe."

You shove her playfully, rolling your eyes behind your shades. She cackles softly and falls back, stretching out across the floor.

"You going to patch things up with Makara?" You ask.

She nods.

"I guess I have to explain what happened. You wouldn't mind right?"

You sigh. It would totally ruin your reputation, though you figure your reputation's already been ruined enough. What's a little more light tarnishing?

"Yea Rez. Go and fix everything with your psycho clown boyfriend. I'll always be here if you need a platonic bro dude to chill with."

You can't help but say this a little ironically. You love seeing her happy, but you'd love it more if she were happy in your arms. You know that's not going to happen though. She seems to sense your hidden words.

"Don't worry Strider, someone's going to love the cool kid."

She sits up and in the most platonic fashion, kisses you lightly on the cheek. You know it's platonic and she knows it's platonic so everything should be hunky-dory and platonic as fuck.

Unfortunately, the clown standing in Terezi's doorway does not realize how fucking platonic this shit hole affection-fest is.

It is safe to say that you are screwed.

John, find Vriska.

* * *

><p><strong>Headcannon time! This is a really dumb headcannon that I have but I love it anyways. Jade can see everything in space because she is the witch of space, so why can't Dave see time? Or feel it. Or something. I don't know that was a horrible explanation of my reasoning but basically Dave is constantly keeping track of time whether he wants to or not. It's kind of an involuntary thing that probably acts up more when he is nervous.<strong>

**Also, happy thanksgiving! If you don't live in the US and/or think thanksgiving is stupid for whatever reason (perhaps you have obnoxious relatives that come over every year or find the prospect of a holiday completely centered around glutinously stuffing one's mouth with an absurd amount of food in the general American fashion idiotic and disgusting)then happy generic Thursday! :)**


	8. Chapter 8 (0:03:41)

You find yourself standing in front of Vriska's door again, but this time you do not hesitate to knock loudly and obnoxiously. After a single knock, the door swings inward and you almost accidentally punch her in the face.

She grins at you.

"Hey John!" She says.

"Vriska, what the hell!?"

Her grin falters slightly as she realizes how angry you are. Before you can say anything else, she grabs the front of your shirt and pulls you into her room, slamming the door behind you. You stumble a little when she lets you go. You whip around.

"Why would you do that!?"

"I wanted privacy dorkwad." She says.

"Not that. Why would you read Karkat's journal to everyone? I had no idea that's what you wanted to do with the file on his computer!"

She rolls her eyes and steps towards you.

"Exactly. If I had told you my brilliant plan, you would have been a weenie and not helped me. You were the one who wanted to get back at Karkat remember?"

She pokes you in the chest, pushing you back a couple steps.

"Yea but I didn't think you would go that far! I just wanted to do something stupid to get on his nerves. And now Terezi and Dave have been dragged into this mess. What did they do to deserve it?"

She comes even closer so you take another step back. Your lower back bumps into the edge of her desk.

"John, John, John." She says, shaking her head. "When will you ever learn? There are always casualties in war. Sometimes they are innocent bystanders. But who is really ever innocent?"

You furrow your eyebrows as you try to understand what she is saying. Frankly, you are having a hard time thinking straight as you are pretty much pinned against the desk of a scary spider bitch with said scary spider bitch standing over you.

"I just don't get what you would gain by doing that."

She studies you for a moment.

"You know John, not everything I do is to benefit myself. Why would you even suggest that? It's like you think I'm some heartless self-centered bitch."

That's kind of exactly what you think she is. But you don't want to be mean so you don't actually say that out loud.

"Sorry but I just don't get it."

She smiles and leans closer.

"Don't worry about it. You don't have to. Besides, you still owe me."

Oh right. That.

"Of course. What do you want?"

"This."

Suddenly, the space between you disappears as her lips land on yours. Your eyes are wide with surprise. Vriska's eyes are shut tight as she presses her mouth furiously against your own. It takes you a moment before you realize what is happening.

You gently place your hands on her shoulders and push her away. Her eyes are still closed. She keeps them closed as she stands there for several moments while you work up the nerve to say something. Just as you think you have found the right words, she speaks before you can.

"You can go John." She says.

"But—"

"Leave!"

You blink and step past her. You look back at her once before you open the door. She is still standing in the same place.

You close the door behind you and sink back against it, resting your head in your hands. Well that was emotionally exhausting. And it's about to get even more emotionally exhausting because guess who stands before you.

Karkat shouty McVantas himself.

And he looks pissed.

Rose, go to your room.

* * *

><p><strong>In this chapter, there is a very obvious headcannon. However, for the sake of anyone who doesn't get it yet, for whatever reason, I'm not going to spoil it. So you're welcome.<strong>


	9. Chapter 9 (0:03:56)

You would go to your room, in fact that was what you were planning to do, but you get a little sidetracked when you pass by Roxy's room. The door is open a crack and you can hear voices from the inside. You are not usually one to eavesdrop, so you do not know what would ever compel you to do this, but you peek through the crack anyway.

Your mom—you mean Roxy is sitting on her bed next to Dave's bro—you mean Dirk, and is leaning her head against his shoulder. His arm is draped around her.

"I know." She says.

She closes her eyes and sighs.

"I know."

They stay like that for quite a while, so you decide to stop eavesdropping and let them have their peace. It seems you have witnessed the end of what is sure to have been a particularly eventful and emotional feelings jam. It's too bad you didn't happen upon the two of them a little bit earlier. You could have witnessed some pretty complicated and interesting emotions. But you suppose it's for the best. It would have been unfortunate if you had accidentally seen something you weren't supposed to.

You continue on to your room as you had planned. You sit down on your bed and take up your knitting. You have been especially careful to keep this project hidden whenever your mom comes around.

You knit a few rows before you get a pesterchum notification on your laptop. You set down your knitting to answer it, rolling your eyes as you do. Everyone is still in the habit of contacting each other through pesterchum even though you are never more than a couple rooms away.

- grimAuxiliatrix [GA] began trolling tentacleTherapist [TT] at 16:32 –

GA: Have You Acquired Any Information Regarding The Events That Took Place This Morning?

TT: It's nice to hear from you too Kanaya. I feel like it has been forever since we've had an actual conversation.

GA: I Do Not Understand What You Mean. We Were Talking Only Yesterday. We Made Cupcakes With The Jane Human.

TT: Yes. And the day before that we played role-playing games with Nepeta and Terezi. And before that we helped Dave and the Mayor with can town.

GA: Did You Not Enjoy That? I Thought You Were Fond Of Can Town.

TT: Kanaya, I can only tolerate buildings made of cans for so long. I want to actually spend time with my girlfriend.

TT: Even now you are trolling me instead of talking to me face to face.

GA: I Do Not Understand What You Are Implying.

TT: Kanaya. You are avoiding me. And I intend to find out why.

GA: …

TT: Your finish crumbs will not suffice as explanation.

You wait patiently for her response. A good ten minutes pass while you wait. A knock sounds on your door. You elect to ignore it so that you may continue your conversation with Kanaya.

"Mom?" A voice calls out from the other side of the door.

You decide Kanaya can wait.

TT: I must go. We will finish this later.

- tenticalTherapist ceased pestering grimAuxiliatrix –

You quickly shut your laptop and shove your knitting under the bed where you hide it along with a few other things. You open the door and let your mom in. She goes over to your bed and stretches out across it, face down.

"Is everything alright?" You ask, sitting down beside her. She sighs into the comforter.

"Yea. A little drama, but it's no biggie." She says. "I just want to take my mind off of it for a while."

"I'm assuming that means you are not up for a feelings jam?"

You are a little disappointed that she decided to confide in Dirk instead of you, but understand that there are some matters that girls do not wish to discuss with their mothers. You of all people would be sympathetic to this.

Roxy rolls onto her back and smiles at you.

"Nah. Let's do something fun. Just the two of us."

"Do you have anything in particular in mind?" You ask.

She ponders for a moment.

"I was reading about earth back when you and John and Janey and all those peoples lived there and heard that back then you would cut faces in pumpkins. It said you only did it on a certain holiday but seeing as that holiday is probably never going to happen again…"

She trails off, looking at you hopefully.

You feel the overwhelming urge to hug her. You always secretly wanted to carve jack o' lanterns with your mom but every year you would insist that you didn't want her to have to clean up the mess. So you never did.

"I'd love to cut faces in pumpkins with you."

Her face lights up and she pulls you into a hug. You feel your heart throb like it always does when she hugs you.

You never want to let go and you have the feeling she doesn't either.

Gamzee, go back to your respite block

* * *

><p><strong>Hey! What's up peoples? :) I wanted to quickly say thank you to all of the people who have followed, favorited and reviewed this story. I honestly didn't expect anyone to pay attention to it at all! I just wanted to say that you've made me really happy and that I'm glad you are enjoying it. So thank you! :)<strong>


	10. Chapter 10 (0:03:00)

"Gamzee!" She calls out to you as you purposefully speed walk down the hall to your own respite block.

"Wait!" You do not wait. In fact, if anything you begin walking faster.

You hear her run up behind you. She grabs your sleeve but you wrench it out of her grasp. When you get to your door, you feel her hand on your shoulder.

"Gamzee stop! Let me explain."

You whip around to face her, brushing her hand off of your shoulder.

"I was all up and going to let you explain. I was motherfucking ready to believe anything that came out of your motherfucking mouth. I thought, you know, sometimes Karbro gets a little dramatic and blows things out of proportion. But now I see that he was motherfucking right."

You go into your room and slam the door in her face. You grab your desk chair and prop it under the handle since these motherfucking doors don't have any locks.

Terezi pounds on the door. She shouts, muffled by the walls.

"Please! Listen to me! It wasn't what it looked like!"

You sit down on the floor and rest your head in your hands, ignoring her voice as best as you can.

"Gamzee let me in!"

She pounds harder on the door. You can hear her sobbing through her words.

"Gamzee!" She screams.

The pounding stops. You can still hear her crying outside of your respite block. You also hear other doors opening and closing as people try to find out what all of the commotion is about.

"Is everything alright?" A voice asks. She does not answer, but keeps on crying.

"Terezi?"

"Leave me alone!" She yells. You hear her footsteps rain down the hallway as she absconds.

You sit cross-legged in the middle of your respite block, your head in your hands. A tear runs down your cheek. The crying has stopped. The pounding has stopped. Everyone has returned to their respite blocks. Everything is quiet. Peaceful even.

This is not what you want. You do not want peace. You want noise. You want destruction. You want chaos.

You want rage.

A shudder runs through your body as the overwhelming urge for pie hits you hard. You grit your teeth together and dig your overgrown fingernails into your hair, pulling at it.

You promised her you wouldn't do it. But why should you keep any promises you made to her?

You suddenly stand erect. You find yourself walking over to the closet and opening the door. You find yourself digging through it. You find yourself reaching out to take what you have found.

Your arm shakes as part of you refuses to touch the bloodstained juggling clubs. The other part of you tries it's hardest to have them close.

Eventually, you slam the closet door, hands empty.

Yes, you promised her you wouldn't, but you also promised yourself.

John, Abscond

* * *

><p><strong>As you can see, I realized how stupid my previous system of keeping the timeline manageable was and redid it. It is now much more confusing. You're welcome. <strong>


	11. Chapter 11 (0:03:36)

You attempt to be John so that you abscond but can't because you are too busy being Karkat.

John does try to abscond but you grab the front of his shirt and pull him back. He averts his eyes.

"So you were the fuckwit who ruined my friends' relationship." You say through gritted teeth.

He looks up at you in surprise.

"That's what you're mad about? You don't care that your privacy was invaded?"

You roll your eyes.

"Fuck no. It's not like I expect any respect from all of you shitsucking nookstains. But you just had to screw over Terezi and Gamz."

John sticks out his chin, a sure sign that he is getting defensive.

"It wasn't all my fault. If you hadn't been spying in the first place…"

"I wasn't fucking spying! Besides, it wouldn't have mattered if your dumbass moirail didn't start macking on Terezi!"

He pushes you. You stumble a couple of steps back. You forgot that he was slightly bigger and stronger than you.

"Don't you bring Dave into this! And he's not my mow… miy…moy…"

"Oh sorry, I thought we were dragging everyone into this seedflap spilling shitfest! Hey everyone! Gather around! Let's all flail around like a bunch of clueless wrigglers! We can all have a shouting party and scream at one another until our nutrition tubes bleed!"

By now, quite a few people have heard the commotion and are standing in their doorways, listening to your argument. John seems a little put off by this, but you don't give a fuck. Let the listen for all you care! It would all get around anyways. Gossip travels fast in this gogforsaken shithive.

"That doesn't even make any sense! I am so done with your endless dramatics." He says.

"Yes, I'm the one causing all of the drama here. Go ahead, blame it all on me! Everything is essentially my fault after all."

"That too! I can't stand it. You're always whining and complaining about how much you hate yourself and it's getting really old! You're a shitty friend and everyone is sick of your weird self-obsession. Everyone is sick of you!"

He huffs, his face flushed with contempt. You stare blankly at him for a moment as what he said sinks in. You would never admit it, but it is true. Everyone does hate you. Even you hate you! You can't bring yourself to say this though, so you settle for two words that you have said many times, but never with such malice as you do now.

"Fuck you."

You turn your back to John and walk away. You are about to return to your respite block when Nepeta steps in your way.

"Karkitty?" She says, her eyes wide.

"Leave me alone Nepeta." You say, pushing past her.

"But—"

"I said fuck off! I don't need this right now and I don't need you."

You abscond to your respite block and slam the door behind you. All of the anger has left and all you can feel is numbness. You sink to the floor and curl up into a ball on the ground. The cold floor presses against your cheek.

Why do you always fuck everything up? You ruined Terezi and Gamzee's relationship. You screwed over Strider. You probably just went and destroyed your friendship with John.

Any time anything good happens to you, friends, quadrants, some actual peace for once, you always manage to mess it up.

You tug at your own hair, pulling it over your eyes.

Sometimes you wish you could just stop being you, that you could be someone else for once who isn't so fucking awful. But you can't. You're stuck being a tiny grey mutant, curled up on the floor of your respite block, wishing it all would just end.

Tavros, knock on Vriska's door.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey look at that! Two updates in one day. What a surprise. :) I think it's obvious by now that I don't have a life. :P<strong>

**Anyways, ****headcannon! Just a little one. John sticks out his chin when he is feeling particularly stubborn. ****Also, poor Karkat. :( He thinks everyone hates him. He doesn't like himself very much does he? He's a very sad character when you think about it. **

**Again, a quick thank you to everyone who has been following, favoriting and reviewing. It makes me really happy. ^-^**


	12. Chapter 12 (0:03:14)

You hesitate. You are not sure that she wants to talk to you right now. You probably wouldn't want to talk to you right now. But Kanaya has been telling you that to have confidence, you are supposed to take initiative. And that is what you are trying to do now.

After many moments of deliberation, you cluckbeast out and walk away from the door. As you do, it swings open behind you.

"Oh pupa, I was just looking for you."

You blink in surprise and slowly turn around.

"You were?" you stutter.

"Of course! It's been too long since we've spent some quality time together. Let's go do something fun."

She loops her arm through yours and drags you down the hall. You are still in shock. She pushes the door open to the recreation block and leads you inside. She drops your arm and crosses the room to the closet. She rummages through the closet, leaving you standing awkwardly by the door.

"Let's play a game." She turns around holding a box with a wide grin on her face. Something seems a little… off about her. You can't quite put your finger on it though.

Vriska sets the box down on the card table and leans foreword, propping herself up with her arms.

"Loser owes the winner a favor." She sits down. "Well come on then! Get over here!"

You find yourself making your way slowly over to the card table and sitting down across from her. You aren't quite sure if it is of your own will or hers.

"Uh… Vriska, I don't know if…"

"Shut up pupa. Let's play."

She opens the box and takes out a chessboard. She lays out the chessboard out on the table and sets up the pieces.

"Vriska I'm not sure this game is fair."

"Of course it's fair! It's a battle of wit! Of course, not the most entertaining battle of wit there is but the more entertaining ones have higher consequences. We could play one of those if you would rather of course."

She smiles slyly. You shake your head.

"Then great. I'll even let you have the first move."

She turns the board so that the white pieces stand ready in front of you. She looks at you challengingly. You sigh, residing yourself to playing along and move your first pawn foreword.

She grins and cracks her knuckles.

"Then let us begin."

The game is surprisingly close. You don't think you've ever gotten this close to beating Vriska at anything. She seems to be distracted, like her mind is on something else completely. She doesn't even notice the trap you set with your knight and bishop.

"Check." You say, satisfied with yourself.

Vriska immediately snaps out of whatever other thoughts she was having. You watch her glazed eyes slowly focus on the board. She frowns, squinting her eyes menacingly.

"Well played pupa."

She uses her queen to take your bishop. You move your knight so that you are still in check.

"Check." You say again.

Vriska seems to be getting frustrated. She moves her king so that he is out of the line of fire of your knight. However, this has left him cornered. Your rook sits in a perfect line with her king. You pick it up to move it.

"Check mate."

A strange feeling washes over you, like the cool soper slime in your recupracoon. Your eyes glaze over and your hand moves of it's own accord.

When the feeling wears off, you find that you have moved your rook in the wrong direction, across the board. You frown. Why would you have done that?

Vriska takes one of your pawns with her queen, landing it directly in front of your king.

"Check mate." She says.

You blink, staring at the board blankly and wondering what just happened. You were so close and you just botched it. You somehow managed to mess it up like you always do. Vriska must notice the look of disappointment on your face.

"Don't beat yourself up about it." She grins. "Not everyone can be as amazing as me. And you got pretty close there too. I'll admit you even had me worried there for a moment. But in the end I ended out on top, because I will always end out on top."

She tosses her hair behind her shoulder. You look down at the board again, still trying to understand what happened. She leans foreword across the board and lifts your chin with two fingers, returning your attention to her face.

"Now about that favor…" Her eyes darken.

"I never agreed…" You stutter, trying not to pull away.

"You agreed by making the first move."

She pushes the table to the side, chess pieces spilling off of it. She steps behind your chair, holding your head in her cold hands. You grip the material of your shorts with your short nails.

"What do you want?" You squeeze your eyes shut as she presses her lips to your ear and whispers.

"I want you to keep quiet."

She pushes your chair over so that you tumble to the floor. You feel your teeth pierce into your lip, which stats to bleed dull brown. You roll over, propping yourself up on your elbows. She stands tall above you, a foot on either side of your torso.

You shut your eyes and ready yourself for what you know is coming next.

And it does.

Roxy and Rose, carve pumpkins!

* * *

><p><strong>A quick headcannon from the last chapter that I forgot to put in that one. John still doesn't understand troll romance even after spending so much time with trolls. :)<strong>

**I'm not going to talk about the headcannons in this chapter until a later one because I don't want to give anything away accidentally. ;)**


	13. Chapter 13 (0:03:20)

You stab your knife into the soft pumpkin flesh and saw around the stem. Rose is already digging her hands into her own pumpkin and pulling out large glops of slimy strings and seeds.

It wasn't hard to find pumpkins in this house. If it had been, you could have just appearified some from the ecto-room (as you have taken to calling it) but no one really likes going in there. You didn't have to though because it turned out that there were pumpkins basically everywhere scattered around the house.

You are sawing off the strings attached to your pumpkin lid when Jane, Jake and Feferi stroll in. The three of them have been spending a lot of time together lately.

"Cheerio Roxy." Jake says with a goofy grin when he sees you.

"What are y'all doing?" Jane asks.

"We're carving… what did you call them again?" You turn to your mom.

"Jack o' lanterns." She says without looking up from her pumpkin guts.

Jake starts rummaging through the fridge, while Feferi gets out three glasses. She looks at you briefly before smiling and taking out two more glasses. Jane sits down across from you and your mom.

"In the middle of April?" She says, looking at you kind of funny.

Rose answers for you.

"We figured that since we have so much time, there's no use waiting until October. Besides, we don't even know if there even is going to be a Halloween in this new universe."

Feferi and Jake bring over a tray off glasses full of lemonade, placing one in front of everyone. Feferi hands you yours.

"What's a Halloween?" She asks.

"It's a human holiday we used to have on earth. Basically everyone dresses up in costumes and eats lots of candy." Jane answers.

Feferi cocks her head and sips her lemonade.

"Sounds like a pretty strange holiday." She says.

"Now that I think about it, it is. But it's also lots of fun." Jane says.

Jake gazes wistfully at the pumpkin you are currently disemboweling.

"I never got to celebrate Halloween." He says.

"Neither did I." You say, scooping out the last of the pumpkin guts. Rose has already moved on to drawing the eyes on her pumpkin with a permanent marker. You stare at your pumpkin, pondering what face you should carve into it.

"Most people in this house haven't." Rose says as she draws a grinning mouth.

Jane stands up suddenly, almost accidentally knocking over her glass of lemonade.

"Why don't we celebrate it now?" She says, giggling with excitement. "We can get everyone to join in! It would be a great opportunity to teach the trolls about human culture. And then after that maybe we could celebrate a troll holiday!"

"I don't know about celebrating a troll holiday." Rose says, "From what I have read, most of those are susceptible to ending in bloodshed and massacre, but I don't see any harm in celebrating Halloween."

Feferi hops to her feet, clapping her hands and glubbing in excitement.

"This is so glubbing fantastic!" She says.

"It's all very well and good," Jake says, "but how exactly would we pull this off?"

By now you are completely ignoring your pumpkin as you are too exited to handle a knife safely.

"Kanaya can help everyone make costumes, and Janey, you can teach us all how to make cool Halloweeny treats. And then once everything is ready, we can have a big costume party with everyone!"

Everyone starts talking at once, spewing ideas all over the place. Rose holds her hands up for silence. Everyone stops talking and looks at her.

"I think this would be a wonderful opportunity to bond and hopefully release tension over recent events, however there are a few things we have to work out first. For one, when would we hold this celebration?"

There is silence as everyone thinks it over.

"How about next week? That would give us enough time to prepare everything."

"Lets say day 16 then?" Rose suggests. She is met with nods of approval. "Alright, next. How would we get the materials we need?"

Jane speaks up.

"Can't you just do the voidy thing?" She says to you, "Isn't that how you got those pumpkins?"

You and your mom look at each other. You facepalm. You can't believe you didn't think of that. It seems that your mom didn't think of it either. You feel like such an idiot. The two of you wasted all that time prancing around the house looking for pumpkins!

"Well now that we have gotten all that figured out," She says, looking slightly embarrassed, "all that is left is to tell everyone else."

You pick up your permanent marker, suddenly sure of what you want to carve.

This is going to be epic.

Kanaya, stop avoiding your matesprit


	14. Chapter 14 (0:03:34)

What? Why would you be avoiding your matesprit? That is absolutely preposterous. You are offended that anyone would even suggest that. You could go talk to her right now and everything would be fine.

…

However… you are kind of busy right now and don't feel like disturbing her. So why don't you just continue with what you were going to do and leave this train of thought for later?

You decide to do that. You walk down the hall. It is your intention to go visit Vriska and learn a bit more about what happened with Karkat's journal. You notice some commotion outside of Vriska's door. You arrive just in time to see John push past you and storm off. After the crowd disperses, you knock on Vriska's door.

It takes quite a while for anyone to answer, but you wait patiently. You can hear movement from inside. Eventually, the door opens.

"Hey Kanaya. What are you doing here?" She asks.

Something seems a little off about her. Her eyes look a little bluer than normal and her voice cracks slightly. Has she been crying?

"I heard the commotion outside of your door and came to see what happened." You say, partially truthfully.

"Oh. I heard that. I don't know what happened though, so see you." She tries to close the door but you stop it with your foot.

"Vriska, is everything alright?" You ask.

"Everything's fine! Gog!" She kicks your foot out of the way and slams the door in your face.

You stare at the closed door for a couple of seconds. What just happened?

You shake it off and decide to leave her alone for a while. You will have to figure out what happened from a different source. You find your feet taking you to your matesprit's respiteblock. You go up to her door, take a deep breath, and decidedly walk past it.

You pull out your portable communication device and quickly pester your matesprit to see if she has any information on the matter. You have a quick conversation with her and are trying to come up with a suitable answer for a particularly difficult question she poses when you crash into someone.

You apologize and look up to find that it was Roxy you bumped into.

"It's fine, don't worry about it." She says, smiling warmly. She seems a little sad though.

"Is everything alright?" You ask. She sighs.

"Yea, I did something I kind of regret, but there's no changing it now."

The pieces start to click together in your brain. You wonder…

"It wouldn't by any chance have to do with the events earlier today, would it?" You ask.

She looks at you, startled.

"Please don't tell my mom." She says. "I didn't know that that's what he wanted the files for."

"He?" You ask.

"John was the one who asked me." She says looking down sheepishly.

You nod in understanding.

"So you won't tell my mom?" She says hopefully.

"I can't promise that I won't." You say. You wouldn't feel right lying to her.

"At least… could you wait a bit until all of this dies down? And so that maybe I can spend some time with her before she hates me?"

You think it over. You suppose it's not a big deal to put it off a bit. It's not like you are particularly motivated to talk to Rose right now anyways.

"Fine." You say. Roxy sighs in relief. "She will not hate you though. I would recommend telling her yourself."

"Thank you!" Roxy hugs you briefly before scurrying down the hall. You shake your head.

You look down at your portable communication device and realize that you still have not responded to Rose. You type something you think is suitable and are about to send it when she messages you first. Something must have come up because she says you can discuss the matter later. You sigh, grateful that you can put off this encounter at least for a little bit longer.

Jade, play solitaire.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey! Happy Dave's birthday! I could have timed it so that this chapter had to do with Dave, but I didn't because I hadn't realized Dave's birthday was coming up. Also, happy birthday to Jade retroactively because I forgot that that was a thing. <strong>

**I'll probably be posting a second chapter later since I have no life and nothing better to do. :P**


	15. Chapter 15 (0:01:05)

You are now Jade. You are bored. So very bored. You are so bored that you have resorted to playing solitaire. SOLITAIRE. Who in their right mind plays solitaire? Ever? Apparently you do.

You sigh, shuffling the deck. You came to the rec room hoping that you would find someone there that could play with you. You could play something fun, like pictionary or scrabble or fetch…

But no, everyone has to be antisocial lazybutts who just want to hang out in their rooms all day!

It is safe to say that you have way too much energy to be cooped up in this house.

You begin to deal out the cards before you realize that you actually don't know how to play solitaire. Why did you think this was a good idea?

You begin to deal out the cards to play memory instead, a game which became considerable harder once your dream self died but then started being easy again when you went dog tier.

You are halfway through your game when the door bursts open. Dave stops when he sees you and tries to back out of the room. You do not let him. You are way to bored and have way too much energy to let this perfectly acceptable source of entertainment to escape. You run up to him and drag him into the room by the front of his cape.

"Dave, play with me!" You say. You accidentally bark from excitement.

"Woah Harley. What's with you these days? It's like I can't walk into a room without getting tackled. You wouldn't happen to have a thing for me would you?"

You shove him playfully, rolling your eyes.

"I haven't talked to anyone in days! It feels like everyone's suddenly too busy to hang out with me." You tell him as he flops down on the couch.

"Well almost everyone's involved in this whole Halloween thing and everyone else is sulking in their rooms for some reason, so yea I guess you could say they are."

You look at him in confusion.

"What Halloween thing?" You ask.

"You haven't heard? The Lalondes and some others are making Halloween happen, like in a couple of days. I thought you would be all over this."

You are slightly frustrated that no one bothered to tell you about this, but you are also exited.

"What are you doing?" You ask.

"What do you mean?" He turns his head, looking into the mirror on the wall. He starts to mess with his hair even though it already falls perfectly. You've noticed that Striders have the tendency to do this.

"You said everyone was involved in Halloween. What are you doing?"

He stops for a second before continuing to fix his hair.

"I said almost everybody. Halloween isn't really my thing."

You look at him a little oddly. You could have sworn he liked Halloween, for ironic purposes at least. You chalk it up to Strider-strangeness as you have taken to calling it.

"Well are you at least going to dress up?" You ask.

"Maybe. We'll see." He says. He finishes fixing his hair and stands up to leave.

"Well I've got… stuff to do… so see you later." He says vaguely.

You frown as he turns to the door.

"Wait!" He stops. "What did you come in here to do?"

"I just wanted to see if someone was in here, but she wasn't so…" He trails off in a very unstrider-like fashion and leaves.

He's been acting very strange lately. You know that there was some drama with Terezi, but you didn't think it would affect him so much. You think that the best thing to do is probably to leave him alone to work it out himself. That's what davesprite would have wanted. In the meantime, you should find out more about this Halloween thing…

Aradia, get a snack

* * *

><p><strong>Well I didn't update again yesterday because I forgot so sorry. :P Happy Rose's birthday!<strong>

**Mini headcannon: Dave and Dirk have the tendency to primp. **

**Also, poking plot holes in my own story! Jade didn't seem to be bored and full of energy when she was stuck on a ship for three years. That was John. What's going on!? :O ... probably will never be answered. That is author laziness for you. **


	16. Chapter 16 (0:01:34)

You have been hanging out in Feferi's room with her and some of the humans whose names you still haven't bothered to learn.

At first you weren't interested in the idea of recreating a human holiday, but then the excitable male human who likes adventuring explained more about it. He told you that Halloween was about placating restless spirits and decorating things with skulls.

You are kind of fond of that human. You still can't be bothered to learn his name though.

Anyways, all of that planning and excitement has made you hungry, so you go to the nutrition block to find something to eat.

Tavros is looking through the freezer when you get there. His back is to you.

"Greetings Tavros." You say. He jumps when he hears your voice. You guess he must have not heard you come in.

"Oh. Uh, hi Aradia." He says without turning around. You open a cabinet and rifle through it for something to eat. You find a box of crackers, which you deem suitable for consumption.

You open the box and take a cracker, watching Tavros as you eat it.

He grabs something from the freezer and turns away from you. As he walks towards the door, you notice he is limping slightly and clutching his side.

"Tavros?" You say. He stops. "Are you alright?"

"Uh, of course, yes."

You put down the box of crackers thoughtfully and come up behind him. You place your hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch, and turn him around so that you can see his face.

There are bruises all over his head and neck. One eye is swollen shut. Crusty brown blood is dried to his lip and chin. You blink.

"What happened?" You ask, as if you didn't already know.

"Uh, I can't say." He says, fiddling with the hem of his shirt with one hand. The other hand holds a bag of ice.

"And why can't you?"

"I promised I wouldn't."

You nod as if you understand, which you do. Well, you understand what is going on, not how a troll could ever put up with the amount of bullshit Serket throws at this kid.

You kind of pity him (in a platonic way of course) so you motion for him to hand over the bag of ice. You direct Tavros over to a stool and he sits down. You grasp his chin lightly with one hand and apply the ice to his swollen eye. You feel his jaw tighten and then relax, as he grows accustomed to the cold.

His visible eye darts around for a while, trying to find something to focus on before closing. It seems the close proximity is making him feel awkward. This does not bother you.

Suddenly, someone walks into the room. Tavros's eye opens.

"Oopth. I didn't mean to interrupt." Sollux snickers. You roll your eyes. You swear he can be such a wriggler sometimes.

When he sees Tavros's face he stops.

"What did Vrithka do thith time?"

Tavros stiffens.

"I… uh… she…she didn't… uh…"

"I thwear when I thee Vrithka…" Sollux says, ignoring Tavros's stuttered protests.

He goes to the fridge and grabs a juice box. He leans against the counter, sipping his juice. You don't really see why Sollux is getting so worked up about it, but you can't pass up the opportunity to tease him about it.

"If I didn't know any better, I would guess you were pitying Tavros."

Tavros blushes brown and opens his mouth as if he is going to say something but can't find the words. Sollux just rolls his eyes behind his multicolored glasses and flips you off.

"Fuck you." He says, "I'm thick of Therket fucking everyone over ith all. It'th like, we've all gone through tho much and had to deal with tho much thit and the's thtill pulling thith bullthit. It'th getting on my nervthe."

You nod. You can understand where he is coming from. You don't quite get why he's complaining though. It's not like you can do anything about it. You remove the ice and take a look at Tavros's eye. The swelling has gone down a bit, but it still looks puffy and brown.

"Take off your shirt." You tell him. He stiffens and looks up you.

"Uh… what?"

You are already pulling off the long-sleeved button up shirt he wears over his t-shirt. There are bruises and cuts covering his arms. You can hear Sollux grinding his teeth when he sees them.

You go to undo the snaps on the shoulders of his t-shirt, but he stops you.

"It's alright. You don't have to…"

"Tavros." You say firmly.

He drops his gaze and gives in.

"Just… don't freak out."

You undo the snaps and carefully slide the t-shirt off around his horns. You hear Sollux's breath catch in his throat a little. You can see why.

There is a giant brown bruise spread across his side. The color grows darker around his grubscars, which are oozing slightly.

You watch as Sollux slams his juice box down on the counter and storms off. You should probably go after him and stop him from doing something stupid, but you are too preoccupied with Tavros.

"I'm sorry about causing so much trouble."

You slap his cheek hard enough to sting but not enough to do any damage to his already battered face. He winces and holds his jaw as his eyes start to water. You grab his chin and force him to look at you.

"Don't you dare apologize for anything that bitch does to you. I don't want to hear that ever again."

His eyes widen. You tighten your grip on his chin slightly. He winces.

"Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes." He says, still in shock.

You let him go and return to fixing him up. You can feel his eyes boring into you the whole time.

Equius, find your moirail

* * *

><p><strong>Poor Tavros. Everyone walks all over that kid. :( Also Sollux is getting frustrated with Vriska. How interesting...<strong>

**Headcannon! Tavros has to have snaps on the shoulders of his shirt because of his horns. Also Sollux likes juice. Just kidding that wasn't really a headcannon but why not? **

**Since I'm updating so early I will be releasing another update later today. :) So watch out for it. ^-^**


	17. Chapter 17 (0:01:43)

You return to your moirail's door after hours of searching. You haven't seen Nepeta for a couple of hours and it is making you very worried. You still haven't forgiven yourself for failing to protect her. You don't know what you would do if you let her get hurt again.

You knock on her door as fruitlessly as you expected.

You open the door as you did hours ago when you began your search. The room is as empty as you knew it would be.

"Nepeta where have you gone?" You say to yourself.

You hear a sudden clattering noise and a gasp from the wall. You blink in surprise and walk over to the vent on the wall. Only now do you realize that the vent cover was replaced sloppily. You pull off the vent cover and squint your eyes in the dark.

"Nepeta?" You call out softly.

You hear a whimper and think you can see a vague silhouette in the darkness.

"Nepeta what is wrong? Why are you hiding?"

She sniffles but does not answer you.

"Please come out." You say, "You had me so worried. I could not find you."

Slowly, the silhouette uncurls and begins to crawl towards you. She squints when the rays of light begin to fall on her face. Her eyes are raw and green and her face is streaked with dirt and tears. You hold out your arms and let her crawl into them, careful not to wrap your arms around her. She clings to you, her claws digging into your shirt.

You take her over to the soft rug in the middle of her room and sit down. She curls up against you in your lap. You sit there for several minutes as she regains her composure. Normally, you would be sweating quite a lot by now, but you are too concerned about your moirail to get flustered.

"Equius?" She says meekly.

"Yes?" You say, wishing you could pap her like a good moirail.

"Do you need me?"

You look at her in bewilderment, taken aback by the question.

"Of course I need you Nepeta. Where would you ever get the idea that I do not?"

She looks up with you, grabbing the neck of your shirt with her claws.

"You're always there for me Equis. You are there to protect me and help me whenever I need it. What have I ever done to help you?"

Her eyes are as wide as saucers, saucers of thick creamy milk.

Gosh darn it! Why are you thinking about milk at a time like this? Your moirail needs you!

"You have done plenty to help me. Who is always there with a towel when I need one?"

Her lip quivers. That was probably not the best thing you could have said.

"Anyone can do that! Why should I be your meowrail when you are the only one helping me? What use am I? What use am I to anyone?"

She looks away from you in what you can only assume is shame. You take her head in your hands and turn it towards you, probably a little too forcefully, for she winces. You would apologize but you have the feeling now is not the time.

"Nepeta do not say such awful things. You are the best moirail I could ever wish for. If you were not there, I do not know what I would do. Highbloods are dangerous. If you were not there to pacify me, I believe I would have done something terrible a long time ago. Remember what happened when the purple blood's moirail slacked off."

Her eyes water slightly at this. Oh fiddlesticks. What did you say wrong?

She suddenly lurches foreword, grabbing two fistfuls of your shirt and burying her face in your chest.

You can barely hear her through the sobs and material of your shirt, but you are only just able to make out her words.

"Thank you Equius." She says.

You smile slightly and pap her back as gently as you can. You see her cringe a little so you promptly stop. Once her crying slows, you tilt her chin up so that she is looking at you.

"Now tell me what happened. I have not seen you cry since your lucsus passed away."

You cringe internally. Bringing up painful memories is probably the exact opposite of what you should be doing right now. Nepeta, however, does not seem to notice or care. She sighs.

"It's Karkat." She says.

Your expression hardens.

"What did that low-blooded scum do to you?" You ask through clenched teeth. Your moirail looks worried.

"He just… said some things that made me realize that…" She trails off. "You know what, it really wasn't a big deal. We should just forget about—"

"Nepeta." You say firmly. "What did he say?"

She looks down, picking at her nails.

"He said he didn't need me." She says, barely above a whisper.

You grit your teeth together. How dare that mutant-blooded cretin say such things to your moirail?

How dare he make her cry?

You gently push Nepeta off of your lap and stand. She looks at you in confusion.

"Equius, what are you doing?" She asks.

You are already at the door. You open it and speak without turning around.

"I go to seek the lowblood."

Dirk, check on Roxy.

* * *

><p><strong>I got a review on my last chapter saying that my Aradia and Sollux were very out of character. I wanted to apologize. :) I'm not very good at writing Aradia and Sollux. I was trying to make Aradia not care about what was going on because she has the tendency to kind of just let things happen, but I guess I didn't do a very good job in conveying that. Sorry! Also Sollux is difficult to write because his actual character is quite a lot different from what a lot of fan versions of him are. I was having a difficult time balancing his cannon character with his headcannon character. So sorry about that too. <strong>

**I hope this chapter was a little more in character, though I think Nepeta was a little whiny and Equius a little... I actually don't know how to describe Equius. Oh well, I tried.**

**Anyways, now that I'm done with that whole long winded explanation, thanks for the ****criticism! I appreciate knowing what I can do better in the future. :)**


	18. Chapter 18 (0:00:41)

You knock on Roxy's door. No one answers. You figure she is probably off hanging out with her mom.

"Lalonde?" You call out, just to be sure. Again, there is no answer.

You decide that she is probably fine. She had been pretty ok after that feelings jam you had the other day, so you suppose it will be all right. You still don't know what that was entirely about. She just kept going on about making mistakes and screwing everything up.

You walk down the hall aimlessly, not sure about what to do. You could talk to Jake. But no, he's probably working on that Halloween thing with Jane, Feferi and the Lalondes. Also things are still kind of awkward between the two of you. No need to reopen old wounds.

The door to the rec room opens as you pass it and your bro steps out. He stops when he sees you and glances behind him. He shrugs to himself before letting the door close.

"Sup?" He says.

You shrug.

"Not much. You?" You say.

He shrugs.

Truth be told, this is probably the longest conversation you've had with him since you've been trapped in this house.

"Want to hang out in my room?" He asks. You are kind of surprised.

"Sure, but my room's closer."

"No!" He answers too quickly. You're a little taken aback.

"I mean… it's fine, my room is uh… yea." He fails miserably at covering up his lapse in coolness.

"Whatever." You say, motioning for him to lead the way.

You follow him in silence. You think of possibly trying to make conversation, but decide that the resulting conversation would probably be very awkward and not ironic at all. Or, maybe it would be ironic seeing as the two of you are the coolest people in this house and can't carry on even a simple conversation.

You get to Dave's room and he leads you inside. He's got a bed, desk and chair like everyone else, but he also has a stand with turntables on them.

"How did you get those?" You ask. He glances over at them before sitting down on his bed and picking up a random magazine.

"I actually don't know. They were kind of just there when I picked the room, like the game new I would choose this one."

"That makes sense." You say, "There's a bunch of robot parts in my room."

Dave glances at you over the top of his magazine.

"That's the only stuff it gave you?" He asks.

"Yea. Why?"

He returns to his magazine.

"No reason. I just would have thought… you know what, never mind."

You shrug and return your attention to the turntables.

"So… you actually use these?" You say, trying to make conversation.

"Sure." Dave says. For someone who invited you to his room, he sure doesn't seem to want to talk.

You spot his sword propped up against the wall. You pick it up. It's a lot heavier than your katana. And broken for some stupid reason. To each his own you guess. You try fiddling with the timey thing on it.

"Hey bro, don't mess with that." Dave says. He gets up and tosses the magazine onto his bed. He holds out his hand for the sword and you give it to him.

You watch as he does something with it that makes it glow. Suddenly the sword is whole. He does it again and it goes back to being broken.

You take it back from him and inspect it. You can't quite figure out how it works and it's kind of frustrating. For someone as good at mechanics as you, you should be able to figure out how this stupid thing works.

"I use my godteir powers to cycle it through different stages of its existence." Dave explains.

That makes a lot of sense. You nod and hand it back to him. He swings it around a bit before glancing at you. He seems to be debating whether or not to ask you something.

"You know… we could have a couple rounds of strife, just so we don't get out of practice."

"It has been at least a week since I've used my katana." You agree.

You think you see your bro smile slightly, but you can't be sure. You swear this guy is an enigma.

"I'll meet you on the r—uh I mean, in that big empty room the mayor is using for cantown, in ten."

You nod and leave to get your katana. As you walk down the hall, you can't help but grin stupidly. No one is watching, so you let your guard down and allow yourself to bask in the warmness that envelopes you.

You have a brother.

Vriska, feel guilty.

* * *

><p><strong>Dave is so cute when he's flustered. :P He also is still terrified of puppets. He doesn't even want to go into Dirk's room. I like thinking that Dave and Dirk will be very awkward when they meet. Especially Dave who is torn between missing his bro and being kind of traumatized by him. <strong>

**Oh! One other thing. The only reason I replied to a review through author's note the other day was because it was a guest review so I couldn't reply to the reviewer and I wanted to explain my thought process. :) I wasn't trying to target anyone or anything. Apologies if it came off that way!**

**Once again thank you to everyone who is reading this story. I hope you like it so far. :)**


	19. Chapter 19 (0:00:31)

What? Why would you feel guilty? There is absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.

…

Ok that was stupid. There is plenty to feel guilty about. But you're trying not to think about it ok? Maybe you want to be able to take your anger out on a helpless troll every once in a while and not be racked with guilt. Is that too much to ask?

Yes. Apparently it is.

Guilt isn't the only thing you feel though. Beating on Tavros has definitely left you with an overwhelming sense of satisfaction. And your anger and frustration have dissipated. You guess you can always count on him to act as a punching bag.

You sit down on your desk chair, pushing yourself backwards across the room. You lean your head back and cover your face with your hands. You suppose you should probably apologize to Tavros but the idea of apologizing to that sissy kind of turns your stomach. Something about him just makes you so… angry and hateful.

You wish he had the capacity to hate you back. Every time you do something awful to him he just ends up acting like it was his fault all along. Then you end up pitying him, which confuses your thinkpan to no end.

Even so, it wasn't his fault John rejected you. You probably should have seen it coming.

You can't believe you were so stupid! You seriously just went and tried to kiss him. It's the second time you've been rejected that way.

And the second time you've been rejected by him.

You sit up. It's time for you to get these boys off of your mind and move on with your life. You scoot your desk chair until you've rolled over to your desk. You bring up a fanfiction you've been writing about your RP character on your computer. You read what you've written so far, fixing a few errors here and there. Before you can add anything new, a notification for trollian comes up. You open it.

- twinArmageddons [TA] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG] at 16:32 -

TA: ii dont want two do thii2

TA: actually no that wa2 a liie

TA: ii really want two do thii2.

AG: What are you going on a8out?

TA: ii wa2 talkiing to tavro2 a couple of miinute2 ago

AG: Wh8t d8d he t8ll y8u?

TA: nothiing he diidnt have two

AG: Well then? What are you going to do? 8eat me up? Chew me out?

TA: no iim ju2t goiing two blow up your computer

AG: wh8t?

A file shows up on your computer. It automatically starts a three second countdown.

You scramble backwards, knocking your chair over. Before you can run, the countdown finishes and your respite block is suddenly filled with heat and light. The force of the explosion pushes you backwards even though you were several feet away.

You lie in an unmoving heap on the ground for several seconds, trying to process what just happened.

You push yourself up on your elbows, coughing from the smoke. Blue blood drips from the numerous cuts and scratches on your arms and face. You push a large piece of your desk off of your legs, wincing at the particularly large bruise it caused on your left shin.

Your eyes sting from the smoke and dust as you stagger to your feet, leaning on the wall for support. You evaluate your respite block and find that the explosion has destroyed everything. Your desk is no more than random piles of wood scattered all over the floor, who knows what happened to your computer? Even your recupracoon is damaged beyond repair, spilling soper slime everywhere. The walls are splattered with green slime, black ash and blue blood.

You open the door and stumble into the hallway, watching as the smoke dissipates into the air. A little ways down the hall, another door opens.

"Vris?"

Oh great. Just what you need: bullshit from this douchbag.

Equius, seek the lowblood.

* * *

><p><strong>Ehehe... (Sollux laugh) Sorry I had to do that. I love it when Vriska gets what's coming to her. ;) <strong>

**Besides the point, I recently learned that I have been spelling "headcanon" wrong this WHOLE TIME. I am way too lazy and don't care enough to go back and change it in every chapter, so I won't. Instead, my apologies. I'll spell it right from now on. XD**

**Headcanon time! (spelled correctly) It wasn't Vriska who broke up with doomed timeline John, It was John who broke up with her. :O This was the headcanon I was talking about in an earlier chapter. (chapter 8 I believe. Like how I set that up? ;D)**

**So yay! We are getting closer and closer to the climax. What will happen when the clock reaches (0:00:00)? Who knows? Me? Maybe. You? Probably not. Who even knows what I'm saying anymore? Not me. **


	20. Chapter 20 (0:01:14)

You storm down the hallway to the lowblood's respite block and throw open the door. The mongrel you are looking for sits in the center of the room with a heavy book in his lap. He looks up at you.

"What the fuck are you doing? Haven't you ever heard of knocking you-"

You cut him off by marching over to him and grabbing the front of his shirt and lifting him off of the ground. The tiny troll squeaks in surprise and kicks his feet, which are at least a foot above the floor.

"Equius let go of—"

You silence the scum by thrusting him into a wall. He yelps in pain as the plaster cracks behind him. You press your palm into his face, hearing a satisfying crack. Putrid red blood seeps out beneath your hand. You snarl in disgust, wiping your hand off on the wall.

"Please." He whimpers, his face covered in bright red blood.

"Silence." You throw him across the room. His head hits the leg of his desk with a sharp crack. His crumpled body goes limp.

You crack your knuckles as you approach him. You take a fistful of hair and lift his limp body into the air. His limbs dangle lifelessly. His face is obscured by blood. You throw him against the wall and watch as he lands in a crumpled heap on the ground. You place your foot on his side.

"Equius stop!"

In the doorway stands your moirail. Her face displays an expression of disgust and fear.

"Go away Nepeta. This does not concern you."

You press your cleat into his side causing spots of red blood to soak through his shirt.

You feel two small hands grab your arm, trying to pull you off of him.

"No! Stop hurting him!"

You dig your cleat deeper into his soft flesh.

"Please!" She sobs.

You turn to your moirail to see tears streaming down her face. You slowly remove your blood-stained shoe from the lowblood's unmoving body.

"Nepeta, I…"

"Why would you do this?" She says through her tears.

"I thought this is what you wanted." You say.

She pulls away from you, stepping back.

"Why would I ever want this?" She shakes her head, inching further away from you.

You reach out and try to take her arm but she flinches back.

"Don't touch me."

Your anger returns. Why is she being so difficult? You did exactly what a good moirail should do.

"Why won't you let me help you?"

She glares at you, making fists with her small hands.

"I don't always need your help." She says. She kneels down beside Karkat and takes his head in her lap. She brushes a blood-soaked clump of hair out of his face. She glares at you.

"Now leave. You've already done enough."

"But I…"

"I said go!"

You grit your teeth in frustration. How dare she order you around like some lowblood scum. You are higher than her, better than her. She should know her place.

And yet, as you turn away from her and walk away, you can't help but feel a tiny surge of pride.

John, help the mayor build cantown.

* * *

><p><strong>Such dramas. Much intense. <strong>

**I don't really know what to say in this chapter except that we are closer now to the climax than we ever will be. That's right. Next chapter peoples. It's time for things to get messy.**


	21. Chapter 21 (0:00:13)

You open the door to the large empty room that the mayor has claimed and find that he is not there. Dave and Dirk are though. They seem to be having some epic sword fight over on the half of the room that hasn't yet been populated by cans. Roxy, Kanaya and Rose are sitting down off to the side, watching.

You decide that cantown can wait and go to sit down with the girls.

"Hey, what's going on?" You ask Roxy.

"Epic strife to the death or something like that."

You watch as Dirk does some fancy move with his katana, sending Dave's sword flying across the room, narrowly missing cantown. The Striders are panting. It seems they've been at it for some time now.

"Careful boys." Rose says, "If you destroy cantown the mayor will never forgive you."

Dirk holds out his hand, Dave grabs it and pulls him into a bro hug. The Striders sit down with your little circle of friends, still trying to catch their breath with sweat running down their faces.

"I don't know why you insist on doing this to yourselves." Rose says, gesturing to the cut across Dave's cheek.

"You don't know the wonders of brohood until you've experienced some mandatory strife." He gives Dirk a fist-bump then turns back to Rose. "We should go a couple rounds sometime."

She smiles.

"I think I'll pass."

The door suddenly swings open and six faces turn to see who just walked in. It's Jane, Jake, Jade and Feferi. They seem to be working on their party planning.

"I'm telling you, it will be perfect." Says Feferi, "Just look at this place."

They look around the room.

"I think you're right." Jake says.

You might be imagining it, but you think you see Jane glare at him briefly before agreeing. Jake doesn't notice. He's staring at Dirk who is doing his best impression of a rock.

"Choosing a room for the dance?" Roxy asks.

"That's right." Jade says.

"How is all of that going by the way?" You ask.

"We've got it all planned out!" Feferi says, giggling in excitement, "All we have to do is start on the costumes, food and—"

The door swings open again. Ten faces turn to see who just walked in. It's Vriska and Eridan. Eridan is dragging Vriska along by her arm, she seems to be covered in soot and blood but she isn't acting all that hurt.

"There you are Feferi." He says. "We've been lookin' all over for you."

"Whoa, Vriska." Feferi says, jumping to her feet. "What happened?"

She rolls her eyes.

"Sollux happened." She says, "He blew up my respite block."

Feferi helps Vriska sit down even though she seems to be in no need of assistance.

"Why would he do a thing like that?" Feferi says. "I'm going to half to have a word with him."

Vriska waves her off.

"Don't bother."

Everyone looks at her in surprise.

"What?" She says, crossing her arms. "I can be forgiving sometimes."

Feferi shakes her head as if to clear it.

"Anyways, what were you guys looking for me for?"

"I wanted you to tell Vris that I am capable of bein' a good moirail."

"He's a terrible moirail, don't go down that road." Feferi says to Vriska.

She shrugs.

"I figured."

The door swings open again. Twelve faces turn to see who just walked in. It's Terezi and Nepeta. Terezi is dragging Nepeta into the room.

"I'm telling you, it will help you get your mind off of…"

She stops at the doorway when she smells so many people.

"What's everyone doing in here?" She asks.

You shrug even though she can't see it.

"I just came to hang out with the mayor." You say.

"Hey us too." Terezi grins at you. You hold up your hand for a high-five. She misses and hits you in the face instead.

"Oops, sorry." She says, not sorry at all. "Where is that guy anyway?"

"That shiny black chap with the sash?" Jake asks. Terezi nods. "I think I saw him in the kitchen last."

The door swings open again. Fourteen faces turn to see who just walked in. It's Tavros, Aradia and Sollux.

"There's blood everywhere. What if she's hurt?" Tavros says.

"Tho what, the detherved it." The three of them stop when they see the large gathering. It seems like they were following the bloody blue footsteps that Vriska left.

Tavros spots Vriska and hops behind Sollux, hiding his face. Sollux shoves him away.

"Get off of me you big wimp."

Tavros stumbles and lands on his knees. He looks up to see Vriska standing over him.

"I-I'm s—" He breaks off and glances at Aradia who glares at him. "I mean, I didn't… I wasn't… I… uh…"

He is obviously having a mental breakdown. You feel bad for him and would probably intervene, but you really aren't sure what to do.

The door swings open again. Seventeen faces turn to see who just walked in. It's Gamzee and Equius. The two of them stop when they see the large gathering. Everyone just kind of stares at everyone, not knowing what to say.

"Is that it?" Vriska says. "Is everyone in this gogforsaken hive finally all crowded into this one room? Is this seriously a thing that is happening right now?"

You get to your feet and count everyone.

"Actually, there's only one person missing."

You cover your face with your hands when you realize who it is.

The door swings open for the last time. Eighteen faces turn to see who just walked in. You don't look because you already know who it is and you really do not want to have to deal with him right now.

"This is the last straw douchewit."

You uncover your eyes and recoil when you see his bruised battered face.

"Oh my god. Karkat, what happened?"

He glares at you and throws something small he had in his hand to the ground. It shatters and he steps on the pieces. You look down to see the shattered remains of your last harlequin figurine.

"You know gogdamn well what happened."

Karkat, get tackled by John

* * *

><p><strong>Ok I kind of lied. It wasn't intentional, but this chapter turned out to be EXTREMELY long, so I had to cut it in two. This "part 1" is already a thousand words and so is "part 2" XD To keep the chapters somewhat consistent (as consistent as 500-1000 words is) I had to break it up. <strong>

**So, sorry! All you get today is set up. And a lot of it at that. In fact, this whole fanfic is setup for what is going to happen next chapter. ;)**


	22. Chapter 22 (0:00:00)

You ready yourself for what is sure to be another ruthless beating, but find that it doesn't come.

Instead, John kneels down and picks up one of the larger shards of the statue you smashed. When he looks up at you, his eyes are watering. You realize that you've never seen him cry.

"How could you?" He says innocently, his voice wavering.

You feel a throb in your chest. He sounds so innocent. Maybe you were wrong in thinking he got Equius to beat you up. Maybe that was just anger thinking, not common sense.

Even so, you can't bring yourself to apologize or act as if you know it was wrong. You simply cross your arms and look away.

He carefully picks up the pieces of harlequin, cradling them gently in his shaking hands. He stands up and walks to the door. You can feel everyone's judging eyes on you. You are overcome with guilt.

"John wait." You grab the back of his windsock hood, pulling him to a stop. He whips around, anger in his eyes. You realize you probably should have just let him go.

"Why? So you can break something else? So you can fuck me over even more?"

"No, I—"

"I can't believe you! I don't know why you keep tormenting me. What did I ever do to you?"

"You had my fucking private journal read to every asswipe on this shitbagging excuse for a hive!"

"Yea well you shoved a cupcake in my mouth!"

"You grabbed my fucking horns!"

Snickers break out from the trolls that are gathered. Fuck. You forgot that every one was watching. Why are they even here again?

"Oh shut the fuck up." You yell at everyone. The humans just look confused.

Gamzee stands up and attempts to shoosh you.

"Calm down Karbro." He says. You push him away.

"You're telling me to calm down!?"

"Yea Gamzee, maybe you should take your own advice for once."

Gamzee looks to see who said that. Terezi is now standing, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I wouldn't need to calm down if some trolls could just pick one matesprit." He says through gritted teeth.

"I already told you! I don't want to be matesprits with Dave! _He_ kissed _me_!"

Dave hops to his feet.

"Whoa, whoa. Let's not bring me into this mess."

"I'm sorry Dave, isn't everything about you?" Terezi says.

Kanaya tries to intervene.

"Alright. How about everyone just calms down so that we can talk all of this out."

Rose scoffs.

"Yes?" Kanaya says.

"Oh it's nothing. It's just, isn't it funny that you are suggesting talking things out when you seem to have such a problem doing it yourself."

Kanaya frowns.

"I don't know what you mean."

"You haven't said two words to me all day! What did I do to deserve your silent treatment?"

"I found the bottles under your bed!"

Everything is silent.

"I was hurt and angry that you have been lying to me all of this time. I cannot believe you are still drinking your human soporific."

Roxy jumps to her feet.

"You're what!?" She says. "I thought we promised each other we would stop that!"

"Yea well you did such a great job of that when you were my mom." Rose says sarcastically.

"That wasn't me! And at least I don't lie to you!"

"What are you talking about? You've been lying to her this whole time." Kanaya says.

"You've been lying to me?" Rose says, hurt.

"Kanaya stop meddling, you're just making it worse." Vriska pipes up.

"Like you haven't done plenty to screw things up around here." Aradia says.

"It's not my fault!"

"Of course it isn't! Whose is it then? Tavros's?"

"Uh… I uh…"

"Tavros, shut up."

"Ok."

"No! Say something, I'm sick of you not standing up for yourself!"

"I don't think all of this arguing is doing much good."

"Jake, don't get involved with this."

"What, are you too good to be involved with troll problems?"

"No, I'm just sick of dealing with all of this drama, fish face!"

"Jane, that was mean! Dirk, tell her how rude that was."

"I don't want to get involved with this actually."

"Just like a Strider."

"Do you have a bone to pick now Jade?"

"Actually, yea I do. Why do you keep ignoring me, you're just like Davesprite!"

"Well I'm not Davesprite ok? Stop pretending that I am."

"This is stupid."

"Oh thut up Vrithka, it'th not like your ithueth are any leth petty."

"Hey! Don't say things like that to Vriska you scum-blooded land-dweller."

"Oh, tho you're taking her thide. Big thuprithe there."

"You want to fight me puke blood?"

"Actually yea. I'd love to."

"I need a towel."

"Save it Equius. No one wants to hear you right now."

"I was not talking to you, Leijon."

Eridan suddenly tackles Sollux to the ground.

"Eridan don't!" Feferi shouts.

Sollux pushes Eridan off of him and pins him to the ground. He lands a punch on his face.

"Sollux stop!" Feferi shouts.

Neither one of the trolls wrestling on the ground are listening to her. Aradia grins.

"Can't you see?" She says. "They've moved on from you."

Feferi puffs out her cheeks in anger and swipes at Aradia. Aradia looks up with a line of blood running down her cheek from where Feferi's nail made contact with her face. Her smile widens.

"You have no idea how long I have been waiting for this."

All hell breaks loose.

Aradia and Feferi are clawing eachother viciously. Gamzee has Terezi in some sort of headlock. Rose, Kanaya and Roxy are shouting at each other. Tavros managed to land a blow on Vriska and is being pinned up against a wall for it. Sollux and Eridan are still wrestling on the ground. Nepeta is swiping at Equius who is keeping her at a distance with one hand. Dirk is trying to break up a fight between Jane and Jake but is mostly just yelling at both of them. Jade keeps barking and trying to tackle Dave who just hops nimbly to the side.

As for you? You are currently pinned up against a wall by the douchsack stuffed into a windsock. You knee him in the stomach causing him to let go. You take the opportunity to tackle him to the ground, punching at his squishy human flesh. He pushes you off of him, reversing your positions. He holds you down with one hand on your chest and grabs one of your horns with the other. You yowl in pain as his nails dig into it. You writhe and somehow succeed in worming your way out of his grip. You stagger to your feet, holding your horn in pain. You see him get to his feet and tackle him backwards into a building of cans.

All around you and everyone else, cans are flying. You pick one up and throw it at John. He ducks and it misses him. You grab another one and throw it. This one hits him on the forehead causing a cut to spring open above his left eyebrow. Blood gushes into his eyes, blinding him momentarily. You take the opportunity to tackle him to the ground again.

The door suddenly swings open.

Everyone freezes.

Twenty faces turn to see who just walked again.

In the doorway stands the mayor. He sees the spectacle before him, his beloved cantown in ruins. Tears fill his eyes and stream down his shiny black shell. He absconds.

No one moves.

"Guys." You say, "We fucked up."

John, survey the damage.

* * *

><p><strong>And that my friends is why you... why we... why... uh. I have absolutely no witty comment for this chapter. <strong>

**0_0 **


	23. Chapter 23 (0:00:10)

Blood gushes freely from the gash on your forehead into your eyes. Even so, you attempt to look around at the destruction. Most everyone left for their respective rooms, not saying a word to one another. You are one of the few people who stayed.

Feferi is sobbing quietly in the corner. Rose is sitting, leaning her forehead against the wall and hitting it with her fist every so often. Dave is holding his head in his hands, cursing under his breath. Tavros is curled up in a ball, trembling slightly and staring off into space. You don't assume anyone in their room is doing much better. The remains of cantown are scattered everywhere. Random splatters of oil and blood paint the ground and walls.

No one looks up at you as you stagger to your feet and leave. The halls are eerily silent. You don't think you have ever heard the house this quiet. You don't quite know where your feet are taking you, but you follow them anyway, watching drops of your own blood fall to the ground.

You stop in front of a door. It takes you a couple of seconds to realize whose it is. You knock lightly before you can stop yourself.

Karkat opens the door. He looks surprised to see you. You feel your throat constrict and realize that there is no holding it back any longer. You fall to your knees, breaking down in sobs.

Without hesitating, Karkat kneels down beside you and pulls you into his arms. You burry your face into his chest, letting the tears fall freely for the first time in years.

You barely register Karkat taking you to your feet and leading you into his room, closing the door behind you. He positions you so that you are sitting on his lap with your legs wrapped around him and holds your head against his chest. He pets the back of your head gently as you shake, crying into his shirt. He lets out a soft noise from the back of his throat. It almost sounds like a purr, but even smoother and softer. It fills you with warmth, letting your muscles relax. Your crying slows. Soon you are only hiccupping at Karkat runs his fingers through your hair, still making that noise. After an eternity of sitting like that, you feel the strength to look up.

You realize that his shirt is soaked in blood. You guess it is mostly your own. Karkat pushes you gently off of his lap and stands.

"I'll be right back."

You watch him leave, shivering from the sudden lack of warmth. In no time, he is back with a bowl of water, a cloth and a roll of bandages.

You sit numbly and let him clean the cut above your eyebrow. He dabs it with such gentleness and quickness that you barely feel the sting at all. He begins to wrap the bandage around your head, leaning foreward so that your face is in his chest when hes has to go around the back. He tucks in the end of the bandage and inspects it to make sure it is fastened right.

Once he is satisfied, he looks down at his bloodstained shirt. Somehow, your godteir pajamas stayed clean even though you were spilling blood everywhere.

"Do you mind if I change my shirt?" He asks.

You shake your head. Karkat goes over to the closet and takes out a much cleaner, but otherwise identical shirt to the one he is already wearing. He faces away from you and starts to change. You try not to look as he peels off his wet shirt but can't help glancing over at him. You gasp as you see three bright red stripes on either one of his sides. He turns around when he hears you gasp. You are surprised to see that he doesn't have a belly button or… you know…

"What?" He says, frowning.

"What are those?"

He looks at his torso, blinking in confusion.

"What? Grub scars? Everyone has those."

"What do they do?" You ask, fascinated.

"Nothing much really. They're scars left over from when a grub's legs fall off during pupation."

Karkat picks up his clean shirt.

"Can I touch them?" You ask suddenly.

He looks at you strangely, then the scars before shrugging.

"Uh, sure. I guess."

He kneels beside you. You reach out tentatively and gently brush the marking with your fingers.

"Does it hurt?"

He rolls his eyes.

"Of course not dumbass. They're scars."

You trace along the edge of one of the scars, outlining it with your finger. You go to touch one on his other side, but he grabs your hand, stopping you.

"I wouldn't touch those ones unless you would want it to hurt."

You look at them closer, realizing that they are bloodied and a little mutilated.

"What happened?" You ask.

"I got in a little disagreement with Zahak." He says, pulling the shirt over his head.

"The sweaty horse guy?"

"The one and only."

Karkat sits in front of you, studying your face carefully.

"It's your human luscus, isn't it?" He asks.

You hesitate a bit before nodding.

"I miss him a lot." You admit, fiddling with the end of your hood. "It's just so unfair. Dave gets his bro back, Rose gets her mom back even Jade gets her grandpa back."

"What about Jane? Isn't she like, your human ecto guardian?"

"I never even knew my nanna all that well. My dad was the one who was always there for me. But he's gone. And he's never coming back." Your words catch in your throat.

One last tear rolls down your cheek. Karkat watches wordlessly as you wipe it away.

"Hey listen," You say, "I'm sorry. For everything."

He smiles a bit.

"Me too, buddy."

You pull him into a hug. He stiffens in surprise for a moment before relaxing and hugging you back.

You yawn as you pull away, suddenly realizing how dizzy you are.

"You should get some sleep." Karkat says, "You've lost a lot of blood."

You rub the back of your neck sheepishly.

"Yea, it's just. I kind of don't want to be alone." You admit, blushing.

Karkat rolls his eyes but stands up, helping you to your feet. You sway a bit, trying not to fall over. Karkat slips under your arm and makes you lean against him for support.

He helps you walk down the hall to your room, opening the door for you when you get there. He helps you to your bed. You slip off your yellow sneakers and curl up on top of the comforter. Karkat takes off his own shoes and covers you with the blanket at the foot of your bed. He lies down next to you. You take his hand and lean your head against his shoulder.

"Karkat?" You say, feeling the world slipping away into darkness.

"Yea?"

"Thanks."

John, wake up.

* * *

><p><strong>So cutes. :) I know the transition from fighting to... whatever that was, was a little fast, but I figured it made enough sense. <strong>

**Headcanon 1: John holds back his feelings. He didn't cry when he saw his dad's body. He didn't cry when he saw Rose's body. He didn't cry when he found out that all of his friends were dead. Basically he bottles up his emotions so much that he doesn't know how to handle them. This was the first time he has cried in years. **

**Headcanon 2: Karkat cannot resist the urge to help someone who is acting pitiful. This stems from the fact that no one ever helped him when he was growing up, as he was isolated from everyone else. He yelled at John a lot because John didn't seem to take the stupid things he said personally. He never thought he would push him far enough that he would break down.  
><strong>

**Headcanon 3: Godtier pajamas stay perma-clean. Wait no, that's canon. Never mind. **


	24. Chapter 24 (0:14:13)

You wake up sore all over with your head pounding. What happened? You bring your hand up to massage your forehead and your fingers are met with a soft bandage. Suddenly everything comes back to you. You open your eyes to find that Karkat is gone. Your heart sinks a little bit. You hope he didn't get mad at you or something.

You blush as you run through the previous night's happenings in your head. You really don't know what came over you. You haven't broken down like that in years. You suppose it's a good thing Karkat is gone, or he would see how embarrassed you are right now.

You push off the blanket and sit on the edge of your bed. You spot your yellow sneakers lined up neatly at the foot of your bed. You note that Karkat's shoes are gone.

You slip on your shoes and take a look in the mirror. Your usually messy but stylized hair is in complete disarray. You can't quite fix it without removing the bandage, so you don't. The bandage probably needs to be changed, seeing as a stripe of pink has soaked through it.

You sigh, pushing the soreness to the back of your mind and stepping into the hall. When you get to the kitchen, you are surprised to see that there are people already there. You would have thought everyone was still off, sulking in their rooms.

But no, there is a healthy hustle and bustle in the kitchen. Jane is guiding Jake's hand as he stirs a bowl of pancake batter so that he doesn't shoot flower everywhere. Gamzee is frying up eggs and bacon. Terezi hands him the salt and he takes if from her, placing a quick kiss on her nose. Rose and Roxy are squeezing oranges into a large pitcher. Nepeta climbs up onto the counter to grab a stack of plates. She staggers under the weight of them, but Equius steadies her and takes half of them. Karkat and Kanaya are cutting up fruit. You watch as Kanaya walks past Rose to get another bowl, kissing her briefly on the cheek as she does.

Rose looks up at you and smiles.

"There you are John, could you grab another pitcher for me? There's one in the high cupboard that I can't reach."

You nod, still in shock. You use your godtier powers to fly up and grab the pitcher from the cupboard. You land lightly next to Rose and hand it to her.

"What's going on in here?" You ask.

"Honestly? I don't know." She says, cutting another orange in half.

"We just kind of walked in to find people up making food." Says Roxy, "So we decided to help."

You watch everyone for a moment. They all work with such steadiness, helping each other as help is needed. It's hard to believe that only last night you were all at each other's throats.

"What happened?" You wonder out loud.

"We had a nice long talk last night." Rose says. "Roxy is going to help me with my… er… problem."

"That's great." You say genuinely. "And how's everything with Kanaya?"

Rose catches Kanaya's eye from across the room and smiles.

"I think we're going to be just fine."

You let Rose and Roxy go back to making juice and decide to help out yourself. You grab a bunch of silverware from a drawer.

"Hey Egderp." You look up to see Terezi grinning at you. She sports several bruises and bandages, but seems in a good enough mood.

"Hey Terezi. I'm guessing you patched up everything with Gamzee?"

She nods.

"Red as raspberries." She says, smiling mostly to herself.

Kanaya taps a glass with a knife, causing everyone to look up at her.

"Would everyone please take something and proceed to cantown?"

"Grab your shit everybody." Karkat adds.

You catch his eye and he smiles at you briefly before looking around to make sure that no one saw that. You shake your head and chuckle.

Roxy leads the procession down the hall to cantown. When you get there, you find that everyone who wasn't in the kitchen is busy cleaning up the room. A large stack of cans and books stands in the corner. Dave, Dirk and the Mayor are sitting together on the ground, wiping the blood and oil off of them contently. Vriska and Tavros are scrubbing down one wall; Eridan and Sollux are working on another. Aradia and Jade sweep while Feferi follows them around with a dustpan.

"Breakfast!" Jane calls out.

Everyone stops what they are doing and gathers around. The plates and food are distributed.

You sit down across from Dave and the Mayor with your own plate. You don't even bother to try and make conversation, as Dave is too preoccupied with fussing over the mayor.

All around you, people are happily chatting and laughing. You smile. This is the way it should always be.

When everyone is done eating, Tavros and Vriska volunteer to bring all of the dishes back to the kitchen. Tavros grabs an armload of dishes and Vriska ruffles his hair, trying to follow him out without carrying anything. He glares at her and she grins sheepishly, taking a bunch of dishes herself. You see her smile in pride as she follows him.

The rest of you start to rebuild cantown. The shorter trolls and humans work to paint the floor and walls. The taller ones build buildings and towers. Jade hands you and Aradia cans and books so that you can fly up and place them on top of the tallest towers.

When you are done, Kanaya grabs a ribbon from her room and Terezi sloppily writes "C4N TOWN GR4ND R3OP3N1NG" on it in chalk. You and Dave string it up in front of cantown and hand the Mayor a pair of scissors.

He pauses dramatically before cutting the ribbon. Everyone claps and cheers. You see Vriska push Nepeta playfully, causing her to trip and fall into Dave's arms. The two of them blush and pull away from each other. You laugh. Someone taps you on the shoulder. It's Karkat. He pulls you out into the hall.

"Is something wrong?" You ask. He shakes his head and reaches into his pocket.

"I wanted to give you something."

Karkat takes something out of his pocket and holds it out to you. It's your harlequin figurine. Somehow he must have collected all of the pieces and glued them back together. You take it from him, rubbing your fingers over it. Your eyes water a little.

"Thank you." You say, pulling him into a hug.

"No problem fuckwit."

The door to cantown suddenly opens.

"Karkles, you didn't tell me you were pale for John!" Terezi says, grinning widely.

Karkat pushes you away, causing you to stumble backwards. His face flushes bright red.

"Fuck you Terezi. It's not like that."

She cackles.

"There's no need to get all defensive." She says, "It's cute."

Karkat glares at you, his face still red. His eyes soften.

"What does pale mean?" You ask, kind of confused.

Karkat ruffles your hair.

"I'll tell you later doofus."

Your name is JOHN EGBERT and you are incredibly HAPPY. You have FAMILY and FRIENDS including a very special friend named KARKAT VANTAS. You are on your way to a NEW UNIVERSE full of ADVENTURES and SUPRISES and are glad to know that no matter what happens, everything will be ok.

Because there will always be people who care about you and forgive you even if you get bored from time to time.

* * *

><p><strong>Welp. That is it. Somehow this crazy train-wreck of a fanfic is pulling into the station. We are faced with the end of the journey and will search for comfort by trying to find another one like it. But the truth is, there will never be another one like it. At least, not exactly. Do not worry though, soon enough we will have forgotten about it all together and will have moved on to greener pastures. Namely, other fanfictions.<strong>

**Now that I have shpeeled my sentimental thoughts that stem from exhaustion, a couple notes.**

**1.) There will be an epilogue. **

**2.) I am already working on another completely different ****fan fiction that I will be begin releasing maybe a week after the epilogue.**

**3.) Vriska 3 Meenah. (I SHIP IT SO HARD)**


	25. Chapter 25 Epilogue (9:04:13)

Your name is Karkat Vantas. You are currently at a party, standing off to the side like a grumpyass. You didn't really want to go to this party, but your moirail convinced you to. You weren't planning on dressing up, but Terezi kidnapped you and made you put on the costume Kanaya had made.

You watch your moirail from a distance. He seems to be having fun. He's wearing a suit and sunglasses. When he asked you what you thought he was, you guessed Strider. He punched you in the arm and told you he was from "Men in Black", which you figure is just another one of his shitty movies. He is currently chatting with Roxy who is dressed up like a human version of troll Robin Hood.

You stop watching him and look at Dave instead. He's dancing with Nepeta who keeps laughing at the bullshit that is obviously spewing out of his mouth. He's wearing an ironic "human cowboy" costume and she's dressed up like... guess what? A fucking meowbeast. You wish the two of them would stop beating around the bush and announce their matespritship already. It's getting kind of sickening to watch.

Gamzee and Terezi are dancing exuberantly in the middle of the room. They are dressed up as a troll cop and a clown. You smile. You never would have thought your ex-moirail and ex-matesprit/kissmessis would have ended up being so perfect for each other. You are really proud of them and really glad you made Gamzee talk to Terezi that morning after the fight.

In one corner of the room, Sollux and Eridan are hatesnogging. Wow…that's… um… You wish you didn't see that. You avert your eyes quickly.

Kanaya and Rose are sitting at a table being adorable as usual. Kanaya is dressed up as a human vampire. Rose is wearing a wizard costume. Kanaya has her arm around Rose and is leaning her head against her shoulder. Rose takes a sip of water. That's all she's been drinking for the past week and everyone is either proud of her or doesn't care.

Over on the other side of the room, you spot Vriska and Tavros. You guess they must have worked their shit out, but it's really hard to tell with those two. Vriska convinced Tavros to dress up as pupa pan and wore a fairy costume herself. You watch as Vriska trips Tavros and catches him before he hits the ground. You can see his dark brown blush from where you stand. Honestly you have no clue what direction that relationship is headed in.

Feferi, Jade and Aradia are chatting casually. They seem to be getting along pretty well. What? Not everyone has to be in a romantic relationship. Jegus, what did you expect?

Jane, Jake and Dirk are all sitting at a table together like the good chums that they are. You think Jane and Dirk are still pining after Jake but judging by the way he keeps glancing over at Aradia, you guess they are out of luck.

Equius and Nepeta have patched things up. You really don't know why those two were fighting in the first place. It's like they were made for each other. Nepeta is currently taking a break from Dave to clean up a drink Equius spilled while he apologizes profusely.

"Enjoying yourself?" A voice asks suddenly too close to your ear. You jump about a foot in the air.

"Jegus Egbert!" You say, turning to face your moirail. "A little fucking warning next time."

"Aw." He says, ruffling your hair. "But you're so cute when you're flustered."

This has to be the most screwed up moirallegiance you have ever been a part of. And your old palemate was a psychotic clown.

You growl at him, earning yourself a head scratch. You start to purr as his fingers get closer to the base of your horns. He knows not to touch them now, but can't resist teasing you every once in a while. You muster up all of the strength you can and grab his hand to stop him.

"Later." You say, referring to the pale-date he promised you in exchange for coming to the party.

"Fine." He says, smiling. He slings his arm around your neck and stands next to you, watching what you have been for the past ten minutes.

"Have I ever told you how cute you are when you purr?" He says. You blush and snuggle your head into his neck.

"Shut up dunkass."

* * *

><p><strong>And there we go. Epilogue complete. :D I didn't include everyone's costume in the chapter so here:<strong>

**Karkat: Knight**

**Aradia: Ghost**

**Tavros: Pupa Pan**

**Sollux: Bee**

**Nepeta: Cat**

**Kanaya: Vampire**

**Terezi: Troll cop**

**Vriska: Fairy**

**Equius: Robot**

**Gamzee: Clown**

**Eridan: Shark**

**Feferi: Octopus**

**John: Agent from Men in Black**

**Dave: Cowboy**

**Jade: Wicked witch of the west**

**Rose: Wizard**

**Jane: Detective**

**Jake: Indiana Jones**

**Roxy: Robin Hood**

**Dirk: Ninja**


End file.
